Stakeholder participation is commonly promoted as a means to boost outcomes of sanitation improvement projects, in particular in developing countries. However, there is little research on when or how this participation should occur during the process of planning a sanitation system in order to maximize the effect. This study develops a framework for analysing participation levels of different stakeholders throughout a planning process and applies it to sanitation planning guidelines and case studies from Burkina Faso. This analysis highlights that, particularly during designing of system options and selecting among these options, there exist potential weaknesses regarding who participates and how that participation may influence what type of sanitation is implemented.